Chicago Opioid Overdoses Affect Black Residents Disproportionately

Opioid overdose deaths are continuing at a high rate in the Chicago area, with Black residents making up a disproportionate number of deaths, ProPublica reports.

Although Black residents make up less than a quarter of Cook County’s population, they account for half of the county’s confirmed opioid-related deaths. So far this year, more than 1,180 Cook County residents have died or are suspected of having died from opioid-related overdoses—about twice the number of people who died due to opioids during the same period in 2019.

The COVID-19 pandemic has added to the opioid crisis, experts told ProPublica. People are turning to opioids to deal with financial stress, and may not have someone nearby to administer the overdose-reversal drug naloxone. Fewer people are coming to the emergency room for overdoses, because they fear contracting the virus, said Dr. Steven Aks, an emergency room physician at John H Stroger Jr. Hospital of Cook County.